What a pleasure to sit back and listen to two adults have a serious conversation about humanity's future. No hyperbole, virtue-signalling, or any nonsensical utterances.
Joel Kotkins book on Neo Feudalism is a must read for those who are interested in society and culture of western nations. As a father I have taken the information from this book to guide my children into a future where they will be able to avoid the serf class.
Several years back I was trying to piece together a definition of what seemed like - well, what was going on. The world was getting weirder, people were getting glued to screens, and now there was the billionaire class, and those meekly souls who live off the giant landfills. I was trying to put a definition on it, and I came up with "Neo-feudalism". Imagine that. I don't even know sheet about economics, but I know a little bit of history, and what class I am in. Teach your children well. Sounds like you are. Good for you. 😁
How? This is a serious question as I have a young teenager & am at a loss how best to guide her. She is a great teen but her school (as all public schools in NZ )is teaching ideology du jour rather than critical thinking
@@justineking5643 For a teenager this is very difficult to do. Teenagers are begining to assert themselves and forming independent thoughts. My suggestion is to spend as much time as you can with her without pushing her away. Bond with her and share your values via the Socratic method. Being a teenager you can't just tell her. She has to meet you at least halfway there for this to work. Not knowing you personally, for me in same situation I would do my best to bring Christianity into the conversation as much as possible. I hope for the best for you and your daughter.
We as elders squandered the benefits of prosperity we inherited.Refused to parent our children. Abandoned manners,courtesy and commonsense. Replaced communion with tribal community, personality with identity, and modesty with hedonistic instant gratification. We are a slow boiling frog of a species and the water's getting warmer!
I’ve watched America turn away from God. This has been the cause of our destruction and the reprobate minds leading us. Very scary, but God still has a plan for those who turn to His Son.
It's good to hear someone from the older generation speak up. The Boomers can do alot by taking some responsibility for where we've gotten off track. Giving the younger generations a nudge in this direction would free up a lot of dogmatic people to look at things more sensibly & act better going forward. It's a turning point but not the end of the world.
It isn't that we didn't parent. It's that we trusted our school teachers and didn't realize Bill Ayers and his Marxists took over the teachers colleges to make all our schools Franklin schools. You are correct that it has been a long slow boil to Communism.
Boomers used to be the hippies and they are enjoying their retirements. It's up to the rest of us to sacrifice and that's all there is to it. Do or die don't ask why.
Joel gets away with far too much, there are no difficult questions. Take a particularly choosey population growth story he tells. he says there was a period of what "1000 years where population doesn't increase at all", and he seems to attribute this to 'Feudalism' any elementary student of history will immediately think hang on this is obviously incorrect. Feudalism was around and increased from the Fall of the Roman Empire and the ensuing chaos. What he is clearly doing is picking a point just before the collapse of the Roman Empire (peak European population during the Roman Empire), and then compares it to immediately after Europe was struck by the Black Death. Clearly Europe grew in population throughout the Middle Ages. Agricultural innovations were present, and while obviously serfdom while fairly rough was obviously far better than the old Roman Slavery which was gradually phased out. It's easy to make these kinds of historical comparisons to support a biased view, and Anderson is clearly not educated enough to pick up on them.
Hi John, I want to thank you for taking this subject seriously. Very few of the people I know have any idea of what is coming. The ones I fear for the most our my grandchildren. Thank you for making this discussion one in your series of discussions.
I suggest that there are similarities between our neo-feudalist present (I think Joel's term is spot on) and the feudal past in terms of concentration of knowledge and treatment of physical labor. We have dumbed down education to the point at which children leaving high school have little knowledge and perhaps even less after leaving university with liberal arts or humanities degrees. Plus, they are in debt to the point at which they become indentured, also similar to feudal times. Those with knowledge (primarily the Church in feudal times) used that knowledge to engender fear of damnation in both the the working class (serfs) and the rulers. The neo-feudal equivalent to the Church. The neo-feudal equivalent to the Church is the SJW class in the universities, and big tech with social media replacing the pulpit. The neo-feudal surfs are the working people who know how to fix things, work the supply chains, and grow the food, now lumped together as the Deplorables. As Mike Bloomberg pontificated, all farmers need to do is make a hole in the ground and pop in a few seeds and voila, up pops the food.
@Adam Jacobs If the degree is recent, you probably have acquired sufficient “anti-knowledge” to annihilate whatever common sense you were born with when they collide in your brain.
What happened last time? Mariner Eccles, FED chair 1934 - 48, observed what the capital accumulation of neoclassical economics did to the US economy in the 1920s. “a giant suction pump had by 1929 to 1930 drawn into a few hands an increasing proportion of currently produced wealth. This served then as capital accumulations. But by taking purchasing power out of the hands of mass consumers, the savers denied themselves the kind of effective demand for their products which would justify reinvestment of the capital accumulation in new plants. In consequence as in a poker game where the chips were concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, the other fellows could stay in the game only by borrowing. When the credit ran out, the game stopped” A few people have all the money and everyone else gets by on debt. When the credit ran out, the game stopped. Using debt to keep the system running is what we call a short/medium term solution. It never works over the long term. Is that why Keynes added redistribution? Yes, it stopped all the wealth concentrating at the top. A strong, healthy middle class blossomed in the West. The system didn’t need debt to keep it going. This is what we call a long term solution.
Dutch company DMS ( well funded by the WEF ) is poised to swoop in and “save” food production with their product “meatables”. This is a chemically infused lab product for which of course no one knows the long term health effects. DMS is a big mining and chemical conglomerate. Just another big company set to grab control and wrestle resources from the people. Climate change always happens and it is not necessarily warming that is occurring. That entire premise is based on extremely faulty models and not on actual data. This is not to say we shouldn’t find cleaner sources of energy, we should. We need to do this to preserve the benefits not just to the elites, but to all of us.
Gday from NZ. After several hundreds of hours in study of climate, i wish highly intelligent people whom still discuss co2 as a dangerous,, WOULD STOP IT! IT'S A LIE! Love to all!
Humans activity is generating more CO2 than the atmosphere can handle without the planet warming. It is a greenhouse gas. The question is not whether humans are generating it, but what are the ultimate effects. It appears that there will be a substantial negative impact on some areas and not much of an impact on others. A better thought rather than denying that human activity causes an overload of greenhouse gasses is to find ways to mitigate creating so much of it without destroying our economies. Where there's a will, there's a way. But, so far, we haven't seen much of a will.
I haven't gotten to that point in the interview yet, but I have read his book and listened to other interviews of his, and his hang up with Trump does seem...odd. For someone as intelligent and in touch with working class people as he is, to have written such a clairvoyant and accessible book as _The Coming of Neo Feudalism_ ; one would think he would understand that many voted for Trump _in reaction to_ the very issues he lays out in his book. Whether Trump was actually a viable solution is certainly debatable but quite frankly irrelevant. Millions of working-class Americans sensed that their class was under attack and they were being driven towards serfdom under the status quo (whether or not they understood it in those terms), and the vote for Trump was a hail mary pass to try and upset that rotten apple cart. It's his opinion, and he's certainly entitled to it, but he should probably at least temper his language about it some, *if* he wants to successfully reach many of the very middle, working-class people who most need to hear his message...
The merger of corporation in government is the text book definition of fascism. You will also find many Americans willing to move to Russia because they are more free than us.
Russia?… You must be kidding. Russia today is the definition of fascism from every perspective, and a country with no future and no opportunities. The day might come sooner than we think when a new Perestroika will begin over there and then it will become a land of opportunity.
Russians aren't more free than you, stop fooling yourself. You're not free in a regime that'll put you in prison for speaking against the government. Stop fantasizing about supposed Russian "freedom".
I was with this guy all the way till the end when he brought up the seriousness of January 6th and "wanting to hang the vice President." How did he feel about the 120 days of BLM riots? I can't take anyone as being nonpartisan when they focus on January 6th as though it occurred in a vacuum.
Regarding home ownership, it was only one (1) generation (Boomer to X/13th) where EXPECTATIONS were totally turned on its head. My WW2 father had an 8th-grade education. I struggled to complete my college education and a “starter” single-family residence (SFR) was an older 900 sqft fixer-upper. Despite what I taught my three X-Gen sons by both word and action, they would have nothing of it. They expected the university of their choice funded by parents and later a 3,000 sqft “starter” SFR.
Almost no taxes in property market here in Slovakia, it become a money washer for super rich. Everyone holds even old stalls, everything just keep rising so why to sell while you are getting rich.
In reading Locke I understand his original linking of citizenship with property ownership - it means that the property owner also owns a part of their respective countries and has a vested interest in maintaining individual rights over collective matriarchal, socialism (Like the kid is fond of saying, "Hey that's not fair, she got more" as opposed to the kid that says, "No thanks I can do it myself").
In the 60s, there were segregated bathrooms, and we drove without seatbelts while drinking a cold beer. And on and on. There is no comparison to modern days.
If the Chinese government can take away private property at any time is it really private property? More like a licence from the state to use their goods until you contradict their viewpoints.
A wonderful and enlightening discussion, enjoyed it a lot. The ending however, with the political bashing, was I thought the weakest part of the discussion but, it did lend itself towards who Joel was. Then all of a sudden Joel reversed those thoughts a little when he acknowledged where most of his current support was coming from, interesting. Interesting to hear Joel's views of where California is today. Mr. Anderson a total wonderful program and thank you so much for the chance to hear it freely.
I agree with almost everything this guest has said, except for his odd TDS. I was horrified on hearing about Trumps bid for President, the slowly saw what he did, his record as POTUS was incredible.
Everyone I know hated Trump, and were freaking out about him staring WW3. I just wasn't on that page, and thought, well, we shall see what happens. As President he did better than any other President in my adult life. At least in my opinion.
Even before the price spike in housing . Australia was already very expensive . The house has become a idol and worshiping idols usually involves offerings of sacrifice . In this context it’s to own a home you now have to sacrifice , food , family time , vacations , peace of mind from high debt levels, .
No, we as a people got lazy,and allowed a small group of people take away our, wealth, income, benefits, safe society (since poverty CAUSES crime, and violence), and education, and are going to continue until the vast majority are in poverty, and injustice, with no rights!!!
Pretty reasonable guest but out-of-his-mind on January 6th. I see myself as a member of the “practical” party and this gentleman is well reasoned. What is the practical party? Basically it is rooted in math.
Fascinating! Kotkin says he stems from the left, yet his words have been heard by me in the right (not in libertarians). The right I know (limitedly) has adopted the pragmatic principle that Prof. Kotkin backs. "What works" -- oh, blessed principle for policies. I have troubles with Trump, but ask just who can stir up the "middle class" more than Trump. I would hope that someone else goes to the fore, From where? is my impression that Trump is #1 for awakening? Thanks for an excellent interview.
"In any system of energy, Control is what consumes energy the most. No energy store holds enough energy to extract an amount of energy equal to the total energy it stores. No system of energy can deliver sum useful energy in excess of the total energy put into constructing it. This universal truth applies to all systems. Energy, like time, flows from past to future".
By and large Wall Street chased off American industries to overseas cheap labor and little regulations. Wall Street not the environmentalist pushed Nixon to go to China and open the door to off shoring American jobs to cheaper labor and low to no regs. This produced all the powerful billionaires that now control the system from top down. These billionaires created near monopolies and drove the cost of building homes, buying food, and energy up. Or is this all the blame of environmentalists? Also, American public schools became worse with those with money not wanting to pay their fair share of taxes and moving their kids to nice rich neighborhoods, not as a result of critical race theory. American neo-feudalism mainly occurred due to Wall Street pushing factories overseas and the takeover of the government by the billionaires and large corporations which now pay low taxes and get tons of government perks. These tribes hollowed out America and savagely created modern American feudalism. We went from industrial capitalism to finance capitalism where big money is now enslaving countless American in a vicious debt bondage. Here is the boogie man your discussion steers mostly clear of...
Yup, that sums it up nicely. Amazing how so many of his generation overlook the privileges they received freely that they deny to their kids and grandkids. They have a huge blind spot.
I'm British and I can't think of an American comedy that ever actually made me laugh. I don't watch TV anymore, but I haven't seen anything funny from the UK since forever either. Black Books wasn't bad. I was advised to watch that by a girl from Slovakia. And my Dad used to like Mrs Brown's Boys. But whenever I caught a bit of it, it left me cold. Although he swore by its antecedent, Hancock's Half Hour, as well.
Few edits to the information shared as the video goes along: Middle class and upper class are getting squeezed, more people are being added to the bottom 50th percentile during this inflationary period. The covid spending resulted in a 350% increase in bank deposits for the bottom 50th percentile. And a 1000% increase for the 90th-100th percentile. I am family with the Cousteau's, good people, especially his boys, probably also a hyperbolic statement. Niether here nor there. They don't have the power others do. You're absolutely not going to get a 7% return from "green energy" no matter what. Most green energy ETFs were flat for the entire 2010s decade. That is underperformance. And so on...
The response I think you will see from working Americans will be apathy. I believe we are experiencing this attitude more and more in the so-called service sector of the economy. If I was a member of the rail unions that just lost their rights through action by our government, my response would be, well, fine, I'll just work more slowly and not do one extra thing that I might have done in the past. Over the long run, this will be more damaging than a strike and they know it. Our government is quite happy to support the wealthy, connected folks who give big to the two parties. When one of the Great Unwashed asks for their piece of the pie, suddenly it's a national emergency. Our government seems to dedicate every action to making the lives of the average American more difficult. The predictable result will be a long term drop in productivity. Why work hard when others close to power reap all of the rewards. It is interesting to note that China seems to heading down the same road, with 20% youth unemployment and tens of millions of men with no prospect of finding a spouse thanks to the one-child policy. Every direction you look, big government is failing. Their answer? Globalization. More of the same, but worse.
@Adam Jacobs Norway has about the same population as a middle sized US state. That’s small government. We have 3 million more people living on what we call Long Island. The US government has not far off half the number of employees as Norway has people. That is big government. It sucks at everything.
And I agree that Norway has a good, effective government snd citizens who demand it. We have states like that, too. That’s where people from badly run states are going.
@Adam Jacobs Florida, Montana, Wyoming, New Hampshire, to name four. Education is a problem here, without a doubt. Signs are it isn’t getting better anytime soon. As for “sinking ship”, Norway and the EU had better hope not.
@Adam Jacobs I should add, Norway’s so-called hate speech laws are quite inconsistent with free speech. On this one, we do better, by a lot. So far, the 1st Amendment means what it says. So, perhaps citizen “education” does not guarantee freedom of speech and thought.
@Adam Jacobs We do not have speech laws. I cannot be prosecuted for what I say. Big difference. And we are fixing the suppression, slowly but surely. Example: Twitter.
I think younger generations have given up too much already. The Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington has estimated that global fertility rates will be below replacement by 2050..... You read that right GLOBAL fertility rates below replacement. Overlay that with the fact that people who need to be having kids aren't. The people who need to be having kids are millennials because they are the majority of the population who's aged appropriately (not too young or too old) for child rearing/family creation. We are in the window for them now; things like housing affordability, affordable healthcare, parental support; to the extent all that stuff helps people feel secure enough to have kids, now is when the maximum impact would be. In 10 to 20 years the kids the millennials have will be the generation after Gen Z, and as far as its looking now it'll be smaller than Gen Z (whose already smaller than the millennials). In 2022, the US population grew by 0.4%, roughly 1.3 million. Of that 1.3 million, 1.0 million was from immigration.
The lifeboat scenario is designed to desensitize students to make decisions on who should live and who should die. I did it as a young teacher. I no longer will do it in classes.
People die yet you still live and have to carry on so do you ignore death to lesson the humanity of it in the future. Hopefully not. It's a useful scenario to be thought through. Making tough choices does not turn you into a psychopath but can help you make better choices if taught correctly. The young must grow up
Door or do not. And bear the consequences. What was true for my father and my father's father is true for me and my son. Adaptation as a core human trait is present in every generation.
A good conversation, however I think you miss the actual significant changes in train, and the significance of the depletion of wealth from local economies and low economic groups. World and National change trough all mediums is happening. That's just the Western and Asian privileged, not the rest of the world where poverty and opportunity are endemic and remote, because of accumulated resources and wealth of the Western and Asian privileged.
John, the left brain is the supposed pragmatic and rational side, the right is the creative and emotional side. However I think this model is outdated, it varies depending on which is your dominant hand and perhaps some other factors.
Thre is no hopelessnes when you learn to understand that the internet has actually opened up the world to a new era .. information that once took a month to get half way around the world. can now be seen in a few seconds.. we cn put more pressures on politicians now than ever before.. we just need to learn how powerful the internet is..
It absolutely was not peaceful and I'm on the side of the more libertarian and conservative. It did however come about by different means and reported on with complete bias from the liberal media. The capital riots from disenfranchised populous rioting for the abuses to our constitution, the months of riots and looting by nature of those doing it.
"Social Democrat" = crypto-Communist Lots of yarn is being spun here. And, yes, I know that lies are best delivered with some truth. I know how it works.
OMG. people like Joel Kotkin are exactly why we are where we are. There's no two ways about it. Read Amity Shlaes for crhissakes. It's in English even.
He's incorrect about agriculture's power in CA. It's been consolidated and it now controls 80% of the water resources for pomegranates, pistachios which is partly why the U.S. has an anti-iran policy to protect the pistachio industry and citrus. Industry and agriculture have all the lobbying power in fact. The cars by the way, won't last that are made in the 2020's because they all have computers in them. The computers will die and thus, so will your car. They want you to rent your cars because they will have short lifespans.
Agree with you about the cars’ lifespan. Even my Mercedes is full of computers that (1) Only a dealer’s shop can work with and (2) Confer inbuilt obsolescence.
Many of the economic issues could be rectified (in the medium term) with sound currency. Fiat currency allows the reckless debt based spending that inevitably devolves into a corrupt corporatist system that we have now. It's no panacea, but it will go a long way. But no politician will every propose it, because it cuts off their ability to spend at will.
He’s wrong on the ability to feed self point. The UK has some of the best farmland in the world and is only second to Ireland in food security. If you’re talking natural resources, then sure. But we’re not lacking in those, we just don’t have as many as Aus/US.
i enjoyed listening to the podcast and came here to comment on the point that is highlighted in the opening of the video here: that the US and Australia are uniquely self sufficient due to natural resources. i think it’s a misapprehension based on a lack of geographical knowledge. while the US and australia might be enormous, south east asia is actually the most food rich part of the world due to the fertility of the land and the rainfall. hence the extremely high population it can sustain in such a small amount of land.
Very good discussion/talk. Stred it with my father and brother in our current affairs chat. Don’t agree about the carbon accounting argument though. Yes, Sweden import a lot of carbon footprint through the products we consume but a lot of the exports from Sweden - steel and pulp & paper - are very energy intensive but are here in Sweden produced with low carbon footprint energy (hydro, nuclear and bioenergy). So, that certainly skews accounting.
May have many beneficial and productive uses; not just entertainment value; combined with ai, scenario of actions can be run forward and outcomes shown. Exactly, like climate change and how to go forward
It is a minor and inexpensive modification to make gasoline car to run on natural gas. Many cars were transitioned in Central Europe in past two decades and it worked great until Ukraine war. Surprising neither of them new that.
Oh my - Debt slavery does not equal "home ownership" I could support home ownership for those who chose it and can actually own their homes vs. house-debt for all.
